No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Hyland OnBase vs IBM FileNet vs SharePoint comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.3
Hyland OnBase boosts ROI by streamlining processes, reducing paper use, and enabling faster, secure digital document access.
Sentiment score
4.3
IBM FileNet improved efficiency, reduced errors and costs, saving clients up to $30,000 annually with enhanced automation and accuracy.
Sentiment score
5.5
SharePoint streamlines document control, integrates with Microsoft 365, and reduces costs, fostering efficiency and collaboration within organizations.
I have seen a return on investment with Hyland OnBase because it provides a very reliable ECM platform for my organization, helps to remove the dependency on paper files and file folders, saves real estate costs, and facilitates the ability to work from anywhere.
Senior Software Engineer at Infosys
I have been able to see a return on investment as the time for approvals has been reduced, and since they are centralized, everything is in one place.
Project Manager at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
Cost savings come from re-engineering the business processes using IBM FileNet and related strategies.
Consulting CTO at a tech consulting company with 1-10 employees
There is a significant ROI from IBM FileNet because before its introduction, the company needed to do all the work manually.
Chief Architect at NEUSOFT JAPAN
Time spent searching for documents has reduced significantly, and I saw a noticeable drop in duplicate or outdated documents, speeding up the search system by more than thirty to forty percent.
Software Engineer at ValueMomentum
Huge amount of time is saved. Especially from my own personal experience, I can tell you that SharePoint usage saves me an average of one and a half hours per day.
Data Analyst at Aig Foundation
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
Hyland OnBase offers reliable 24/7 support, though quality varies by partner; some users find premium support and integration beneficial.
Sentiment score
7.0
IBM FileNet customer service is praised for responsiveness but faces challenges with time zones and specific expertise issues.
Sentiment score
6.2
Microsoft SharePoint support is generally reliable, with variability in response times, often supplemented by internal or third-party assistance.
Our vendor relationship facilitated integration with our system and offered additional service beyond the Hyland OnBase product.
Program Manager at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
I would describe the customer service and technical support of Hyland OnBase as being based on the partner that is used.
Project Manager at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
I find technical support from Hyland to be good.
Product owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
People come from all over the world, and they have specialists at the other end of the world to help if needed.
Senior Consultant EIM and ECM at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
IBM has a different division that provides consultation to end users, and most customers utilize consultation from IBM, which costs approximately $100k USD to $200k USD.
Chief Architect at NEUSOFT JAPAN
The consulting experts that IBM provides sometimes do not understand the tool very well.
Consultor at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
There is a lack of detailed and timely responses, and support is not always transparent with the solutions.
Practice Manager at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
The quality of Microsoft's technical support is very high.
Consultant/Administrator O365 solutions at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
It's also difficult sometimes to get the right information because we speak at first to a generalist and they have to go to a specialist.
Supervisor at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Hyland OnBase excels in scalability and integration, supporting large enterprises despite high initial setup costs, potentially reduced by cloud services.
Sentiment score
7.6
IBM FileNet excels in scalability and adaptability, effortlessly handling growth, integration, and large-scale operations, meeting diverse business needs.
Sentiment score
6.8
SharePoint's scalability enables effective expansion with added servers and users, though planning is crucial for optimal performance.
Transitioning to cloud-based services may reduce these costs in the future.
Product owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
The bigger products like IBM FileNet can handle billions of documents and thousands of users.
Senior Consultant EIM and ECM at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
With Kubernetes, we can simply add instances of the worker, CPU, or memory without needing deployment.
Chief Architect at NEUSOFT JAPAN
We have about 80 transactional systems connected to IBM FileNet.
Consultor at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We have had new teams developed within our organization, and SharePoint has scaled to accommodate them without any issues.
Data Analyst at Aig Foundation
Making it easy to scale from a load-balancing and infrastructure perspective.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
SharePoint is massively scalable and I would rate it as 8.5 out of ten.
Cloud Architect at Freelance
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Hyland OnBase is highly rated for its scalability, stability, reliability, and low maintenance, resembling a Windows application.
Sentiment score
8.0
IBM FileNet is praised for stability and reliability, though some clients face issues with high-volume ingestion or outdated APIs.
Sentiment score
7.7
SharePoint's stability depends on infrastructure management, with most issues arising from configuration errors, updates, or external factors.
Hyland OnBase was a stable solution that worked effectively for us.
Program Manager at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
I have never encountered a problem of data corruption, losing data files, insecure access, or anything of that nature.
Consulting CTO at a tech consulting company with 1-10 employees
FileNet was restricted to DB2's enterprise edition instead of the standard edition, causing complications.
System integrator at Indépendant
In terms of stability, we haven't experienced any big technical issues or downtime with IBM FileNet.
Senior Consultant EIM and ECM at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
From my experience, it offers high availability and reliability, and I have not faced any major downtime issues.
Software Engineer at ValueMomentum
I have never once experienced a downtime on SharePoint whereby we come and say files are not accessible because the SharePoint server is down.
Data Analyst at Aig Foundation
The stability of SharePoint is high; it is quite stable and resilient.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Hyland OnBase requires user interface and pricing improvements, better training, migration processes, support response, and enhanced AI features.
IBM FileNet users seek improved cloud integration, enhanced usability, automation, analytics, modern interface, and better integration with existing systems.
SharePoint requires major improvements in usability, customization, integration, and performance, with inadequate documentation and collaboration features compared to competitors.
The application could potentially be more open-source, allowing integration with more solutions.
Program Manager at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Hyland is working on a new platform (HXP) to integrate features from all products, addressing some concerns.
Product owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
The experience with the platform's learning curve is quite steep, especially for less technical staff.
Project Manager at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
Ease of use with IBM FileNet is a disadvantage of this tool. It is complex and hard to use.
Consultor at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The response time and resolution of issues by technical support need improvement.
Assistant Vice President at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
From the beginning, we cannot use a REST API; we have to use the IBM FileNet native API, which is quite outdated.
Chief Architect at NEUSOFT JAPAN
Microsoft forces users to upgrade their license to access proper auditing information, which is essential and should be included in any license.
Practice Manager at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
The rights management aspect can be particularly challenging, which may affect the overall user-friendliness of the product.
Lead Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Expansion of scalability is needed, specifically the threshold limits for site items should be increased beyond the current 5,000 items.
 

Setup Cost

Hyland OnBase offers modular pricing with varying licenses, potentially expensive in Latin America, but enterprise licenses enhance scalability.
IBM FileNet is costly, with high licensing and setup fees; negotiation can reduce prices, yet remains expensive for smaller enterprises.
SharePoint pricing varies for enterprises depending on deployment type, functionality, and user numbers, requiring careful budget planning.
We also paid for workflow licenses, which allowed up to 250 concurrent users.
Program Manager at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
I find pricing to be on the higher side due to its monolithic architecture.
Product owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is very cost-effective and affordable.
Senior Software Engineer at Infosys
We are living in a world where the minimal license from IBM costs anywhere from seventy-five thousand to one hundred thousand US dollars.
Consulting CTO at a tech consulting company with 1-10 employees
The product has become more expensive and requires significant investment for enterprise solutions.
System integrator at Indépendant
The price is high, with yearly subscriptions increasing day by day.
Assistant Vice President at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Unlike Drupal, all necessary applications are included in the Microsoft license, making it cost-effective.
PM at EUIPO - European Union Intellectual Property Office
Microsoft offers bundled pricing for Office, SharePoint, and Exchange, making it cost-effective.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Enterprise licensing is generally cost-effective compared to individual purchases.
Lead Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Hyland OnBase optimizes business processes with workflow automation, storage, security, integration, and user-friendly interface for improved efficiency.
IBM FileNet offers scalable document management, seamless integration, automation, strong security, and high performance for efficient business processes.
SharePoint enhances productivity with collaboration, document management, customizable workflows, and seamless integration with Office 365 and PowerBI.
It provided data security features, allowing restrictions on sensitive documents, such as who could view or modify them.
Program Manager at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
The workflow engine has made the biggest difference for me because it is excellent for automating approval processes.
Senior Software Engineer at Infosys
Hyland OnBase is valued for its security, especially for those in the finance domain who require data confidentiality.
Product owner at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
There is a significant ROI from IBM FileNet because before its introduction, the company needed to do all the work manually.
Chief Architect at NEUSOFT JAPAN
The main features we find impactful are the workflow and document management along with FileNet file stores.
Assistant Vice President at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
At this level, companies don't buy a ready-made solution.
Senior Consultant EIM and ECM at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Additionally, SharePoint acts as a version control system, allowing easy recovery of past document versions.
Cloud Architect at Freelance
Its rights management capabilities and ability to restrict access to certain people are also very useful.
Lead Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The most valuable feature of SharePoint is the ability to collaborate on documents without having multiple versions.
Financial Director at Est
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Enterprise Content Management category, the mindshare of Hyland OnBase is 5.1%, down from 6.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM FileNet is 5.8%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SharePoint is 11.7%, down from 15.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Content Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SharePoint11.7%
IBM FileNet5.8%
Hyland OnBase5.1%
Other77.4%
Enterprise Content Management
 

Featured Reviews

Abdul_Jabbar - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at Infosys
Automated workflows have transformed document handling and support daily approvals and billing
The best features Hyland OnBase offers in my experience include being a robust storage solution that integrates well with the Epic solution, allows Unity Forms to be easy to create and use, and has Distribution Services for sending email notifications as reminders.Out of those features, the workflow engine has made the biggest difference for me because it is excellent for automating approval processes, and we use Hyland OnBase for legal requests, hardware requests, travel requests, corporate credit card requests, and file transfer requests. WorkView is an incredible module for gathering and displaying summary information, and we utilize it highly in our subsidiary to manage our legal contracts, their financial billing process, and their travel. We also use the Document Import Process coupled with Unity API for writing custom code to automate processes to send and receive data from other systems that are not yet API enabled. The impact of Hyland OnBase on our organization is that automating manual processes has had an incredible effect on our return on investment, and the man-hours saved by automating processes pays for the system, ranging from one to five hours. I measured the man-hours saved through the tracking of workflows and automation processes. Additionally, Hyland OnBase has allowed us to move away from moving paper around various departments, providing workflow management to keep approval inside the system and out of the email boxes, eliminating the need for paper storage, and saving storage costs with other vendors.
Shankar-Kambhampaty - PeerSpot reviewer
Consulting CTO at a tech consulting company with 1-10 employees
Business workflows have been automated and document processes are streamlined at large scale
I believe IBM FileNet could be improved or enhanced in the future, specifically the user interface development support, which, despite all the improvements, still feels from the 2010s or 2000s. The current state of the user interface development support and the ability to customize it leaves much to be desired. The backend engine, process engine, and object engine are fantastic. However, the user interface, which is required to provide an impressive experience to the user, is difficult to build. IBM will need to do something about this area. Over time, IBM has made improvements with enhancements through CP4BA and other tools, with which user interfaces can be built. But there is much more is needed. The initial setup process for IBM FileNet requires specialists. IBM FileNet is not a click-click-click deploy kind of product. It has several components that need to be installed in different versions and in a particular order. Additionally, IBM Cloud does not provide a proper experience. The problem is I cannot use IBM Cloud easily. I cannot even get a membership easily. With AWS, I just use my credit card, sign up, and I am done. With IBM Cloud, that is not how it is. They go through all validation processes, and it is a nightmare at times. There are problems around IBM FileNet, not exactly with IBM FileNet itself, but the point is that it is not a click-click-click deploy either on the cloud or on-premise. It requires specialists, and there is a big learning curve toward deploying and managing the whole infrastructure as well as the software. I communicate with the technical support of IBM frequently. I have communicated several times, and frankly, there is much to be desired on that side. When you raise a ticket, it takes 24 to 48 hours for them to respond. We live in a time where business moves at the speed of light. Twenty-four hours is a very long time. You need to be able to get technical support instantaneously. It is not like the more contemporary support models where you get turnaround in minutes, not days.
Ravi Raushan Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at ValueMomentum
Centralized document governance has boosted collaboration and made knowledge sharing structured
SharePoint is a powerful platform, but there are a few areas where I think it could be improved, such as user experience. For new users, the interface and navigation can feel quite complex, specifically when working with multiple sites and document libraries. Another improvement would be search functionalities. While it is good sometimes, it does not always return the most relevant result unless a document is very well-structured and tagged. Also, initial setup and customizations can be time-consuming and may require technical expertise, specifically when configuring workflows or permissions. From a modern development perspective, tighter and more seamless integrations with tools including Power Automate and better support for custom backend integrations through APIs could make it more efficient. Overall, simplifying usability and enhancing search and integration capability would make SharePoint even stronger. One additional area I would appreciate improvement would be performance and responsiveness, especially when dealing with a large document library. Sometimes loading or navigating through large datasets can feel quite slow. Another aspect is permissions management. While it is very powerful, it can become complex to manage at scale, specifically when there are multiple levels of access across teams and projects. Improving developer experience would also be beneficial. Making customization, API integrations, and extensions more straightforward would help teams, especially backend developers, leverage SharePoint more efficiently.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Content Management solutions are best for your needs.
899,917 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user8925 - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer with 51-200 employees
Aug 23, 2013
Jive vs Sharepoint vs Drupal Commons
At Mediacurrent we often get requests to compare Drupal to other platforms used for intranet sites and social business platforms (like https://dev.twitter.com/ for example). This is often referred to as “Social Business Software”, which has grown in popularity in recent years. I decided to do a…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Government
8%
Construction Company
7%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise13
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise74
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business81
Midsize Enterprise40
Large Enterprise83
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Hyland OnBase?
The main factors that influenced my decision to choose Hyland OnBase over other options available on the market were ...
What needs improvement with Hyland OnBase?
I believe Hyland OnBase could improve by making its user interface more user-friendly.I am referring to the learning ...
What is your primary use case for Hyland OnBase?
Hyland OnBase serves as the primary document management solution for all of my company's documents.A concrete example...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM FileNet?
The pricing and licensing of IBM FileNet is high. We are living in a world where the minimal license from IBM costs a...
What needs improvement with IBM FileNet?
I believe IBM FileNet could be improved or enhanced in the future, specifically the user interface development suppor...
What is your primary use case for IBM FileNet?
My usual use cases for IBM FileNet involve three primary areas. The first is document management. For instance, if yo...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SharePoint?
I do not know the difference between the prices of the two solutions; I did not work on this project.
What needs improvement with SharePoint?
It is a little difficult to name the areas for improvements in SharePoint because I don't use it all that much. I kno...
What is your primary use case for SharePoint?
SharePoint is a repository that I use primarily for collaboration and sharing resources and assets. It's a good way t...
 

Also Known As

OnBase
No data available
SharePoint 2007, SharePoint 2010
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Honda France Industries, Hill County Texas, Hylant Group, ING Lease France, State of South Carolina, Syracuse University, Swindon College, Rhode Island Department of Human Services, Rochester Institute of Technology, Moen, Odense University Hospital
Suncorp Group Limited, St. Vincent Health, Citigroup, SRCSD, and UK Dept for Work and Pensions.
Toyota, Aeroports de Paris, ASBBank Ltd., Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals, CambridgeshireConstabulary, D&M Group, NPL Construction Company, and The Regional Municipality of Niagara.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, IBM, Adobe and others in Enterprise Content Management. Updated: May 2026.
899,917 professionals have used our research since 2012.